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HOLD SCHOOLS ACCOUNTABLE
Policy Action: Hold Schools Accountable for Results
If we are to move from a system of mandates to a system based on results, we must develop sophisticated measures of school performance and the capacity to respond when schools struggle.
Indeed, the most complex challenge facing Illinois may be the need for a thoughtful plan to intervene in chronically failing schools.
While the state has more than 500 schools on its Academic Watch list, many landed there as a result of targeted shortcomings, rather than as a result of broad-based failure to educate. A much smaller number can be more aptly described as having entrenched and chronic problems which suggest a lack of capacity to serve students or improve on their own.
Intervene in Failing Schools. As the pressure grows to fi nd a way to help these struggling schools, it is readily apparent that the state lacks the resources to do so. Having been in the compliance business so long and so thoroughly, ISBE has not historically needed to develop the sort of expertise or capacity required to tackle this knotty and sensitive problem. The situation needs to change—
radically and quickly.
The state recently passed legislation (SB2119) creating a task force to examine the problems facing persistently low-performing schools and identify potential solutions. The task force will devise measures to identify which schools fall into the “chronically failing” category, explore national best practices for turning around struggling schools, and determine what state authority and capacity
is necessary for the work at hand.
We encourage the task force to consider the lessons being learned in similar efforts around the state and country, and to move with all deliberate speed to craft a long-overdue state strategy for making a quality education available once more to some of the state’s most vulnerable students.
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No Child Left Behind and Illinois’ “Failing” Schools
Currently, the state has over 500 schools on its Academic Watch List – a status they earned by failing to make “Adequate Yearly Progress” according to federal standards.
No Child Left Behind has focused people on results – a necessary and consequential fi rst step. As a next step, we need to broaden the indicators used to measure school success and fi nd ways to thoughtfully tailor benchmarks to accommodate individual school situations - without sacrifi cing expectations. In addition, it is important that Illinois differentiate among its “failing” schools to provide the right type of support. An otherwise high-performing school that is “failing” because its special education students have made insufficient progress is in a different situation than a school that posts low performance on multiple measures over many years.
Emerging Best Practice
School intervention should strive to achieve dramatic, not just marginal, improvement. Having studied school interventions around the country, Mass Insight concluded that successful efforts integrate three types of change, rather than pursuing one or another in
isolation:47
Program Change promotes comprehensive programmatic change with a focus on instructional strategies and design.
People Change recognizes the central importance of leadership and teaching and permits schools to bring on new leadership
and staff.
Conditions Change allows leaders to make choices regarding programs and key resources including staff, schedule, and budget, and typically sets clear performance goals.
Mass Insight cites the Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL) as an example of an effective integrated school “turnaround” model. Based in Chicago, AUSL focuses on strong teacher preparation and support, effective leaders, positive school culture, extended learning opportunities, and aligned content, instruction and assessment. |
